The need for rough men...

I've had some rather disturbing news today.

An acquaintance of mine, she'll be a little freaked out if I call her a friend so I won't, was robbed, last night. Father held at gunpoint, the reprobates who did it showed cowardice, greed and a total disregard for others.

There is a fairly common saying - "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf" - George Orwell said that, and it has struck true through out the ages. There are horrible, sickening people out there, but there are others, good, tough men and women who take a stand, who are willing to risk themselves, their very ethics and psychological wellness to kill, wound or arrest the evil.

These people deserve the respect and deference of all. In America, they get this. The UK, not so much although that is slowly changing.

The problem is, that there may be plenty of these brave men and women.... but governments have got lost, in the hundreds of years since their inception. Along the way, their initial, total aim of defending the right, freedoms and civil liberties of the state and its inhabitants got mixed up with laws for food safety, running transport networks.... bailing out banks. With all these added pressures, less and less importance has been attached to that early critical role, with the cost of people livelihoods - and often indeed lives at risk. This is lamentable, but in a world where an idiot like Amy Winehouse get more coverage and fans than the police, the Army..the Navy well that world is the wrong way around.

What can be done about it I do not know. J, I hope everything works out for you soon.

Things are.... easier.

I'm hungover. Again.

However, I shall persevere and continue because I feel the need to mention something that my wise old Grandmother told me.

You see, I've always believed that we as the human race have trapped ourselves in a never ending cycle of having to work hard, to get the items to make life easier, to keep up with the harder lifestyle. Well, I do believe that this has SOME basis in fact...however, I was told something.

Back in the day, many many....many many many moons ago, my Grandmothers father used to work on the roads, laying tarmac Wales growing road network, building it. The days were long, the work was hard, the machinery fairly dangerous and manual, backbreaking labour being the order of the day. To get to wherever he needed to work, he would cycle, on one of the old poorly made bicycles (NOT a Penny Farthing, you cheeky sod, I know what you were thinking) for miles and miles, having to start off very early in the morning to get anywhere.

So, early morning, long cycle to backbreaking work from 8am until around 5pm. Then, after cycling home he would have his dinner (all he'd have eaten all day being maybe a cheese sandwich and a flash of cold tea) then go out to tend the two large gardens, until he would go to bed at about 10pm, ready for the next day to do it all again.

All for little wage.

You see, modern life isn't that bad, modern road workers have cheap personal cars, large lunches, modern technology to make the work easier, plenty of time off, and a massive agricultural support network to make sure he does not need to grow his own food...



Who knew, maybe modern life does have something to recommend it...

Hangovers...

Oh god.


Oh dear god.


I went out last night ladies and gentlemen, and wowza does my head sting. It's my own fault, I know, I mixed drinks, beer and cider and vodka and sambuka all in together, mixing up in my stomach and creating a horrible sickly feeling. Hm.

Whats more, I don't know why I do it, I know the effect it will have, I know it's bad for me, yet I go do it anyway. Peer pressure can't be the reason, there are plenty of other things I should be peer pressured into doing - following good music, for example - but I don't... so what is it?

I think that its something to do with the effect that alcohol has on life... rather than yourself. Yes yes we all know alcohol effects the mind, but from the inside, looking out through the eyes its the world that changes...

Things become funnier
People seem more attractive
Embarrassing things don't seem as embarrassing...

It makes it more worthwhile to go out - without alcohol going out sucks! It's boring, too loud and smells.

But alcohol makes us act like we would it just we were a little more confident in ourselves... confidence that has been drummed out of ourselves by television, seeing these apparently perfect humans with teeth and bodies and humour most would love! But we do not feel (unless you are Jess) that we can meet that ideal, so we need a kick start to get us there... alcohol.

It gives you night to remember. Last night will undoubtedly be remembered fondly... after I get rid of this damn headache...

Big things, little things

"The best things come in little packages"

Now, i'm sorry, but that's simply not true. As I sit here, all the best things that I can think of, money, food, beds, cars, TV's, families - all come in large packages.

Money - more money is better,

Food is better when there's more of it (remember we're speaking of the 'best' things - so that must mean really good food, and lots of really good food is better than not very much, really good food),

Beds - come on, do you know anyone who likes a small bed? No, everyone loves massive beds they can roll about on

TV's - again, come on, everyone loves a massive TV

Families - you want as many as possible, because that means you still have the full set... I've lost two, my grandfathers, and trust me, it was better bigger.


Now i'm sure people are pointing out things like disease, and possibly dogs, and jumping up and down pointing at lots of other things, but you must remember, the saying say's the 'best' things in life...and disease and big dogs really aren't the best things in life! So once more i'm proved... wait

I forgot...

there is one thing in life that comes best in little...well....'slim' packages...

ahem. girls (Yeah, you're in this group too J)

Why it is good to be old...

Creaky bones, short sight, leathery skin, lack of stamina, loss of sexual potency, deafness, plus a whole raft of fun and interesting diseases... are all reasons that it SUCKS to be old.

Yes, I know, being old has many many disadvantages. Mostly physical... but then, if you keep you're mental capacity, here you really are quids in.

You see, it is impossible to patronise an old person. If they have anything about them then they just don't care what you think. They've BEEN there, seen it, done it, and nothing will change their mind. So what if you try tell them about the joys and ease of the internet - they've been banking in person, and reading the newspaper all their life, so why change? Their happy, and they just don't care and thats what's so brilliant. That they are old, and simply do not gve a damn about what they do or say anymore.

For example, see one of my all time heros, Prince Phillip, the Queens Husband and Duke of Edinburgh. He is casually racist, and simply does not care and thats what makes him such a refreshing breath of fresh air...for example...

To a blind woman with a guide dog... "do You realise that they have eating dogs for the anorexic nowadays'

To a British Person in Budapest... " You can't have been herethat long, you don't have a pot belly"

To a Scottish Driving instructor.. "So how do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?"

To a student who had been trekking in Papu new guinea... "So, you managed not to get eaten then?"

I recommend you look more up there are even more amusing ones.

So there you go - say what you want, do what you want and not give a damn. You just need to accept some slippage in you're body, is all. Best of all, you never need be patronised ever again...

I miss...

I'm getting old. I'm 22, and that means i'm practically dead, quite frankly. Or so it feels. I'm having to get all grown up, I keep catching myself thinking seriously about where I am going to get a house - Shrewsbury near my parents? Maybe further afield somewhere even nicer, like Warwick, or Bath, or Chester? Then again in the military we move around all the time, so whats the point, why not just wait....

It's a conundrum, thats a fact as I hate feeling grown up.

Plus, all girls seem to have boyfriends. Now, don't get me wrong, I have a girlfriend and I love her very much, but i'm harkening back 1 year and 6 months before we began to go out, and i'll tell you, the above fact was depressing, for the single man.

I also miss house parties. Parents go away, a crowd of friends descend on a house and make it their own for a night. Nowadays, most people seem to be working, or doing something else meaning a 'house party' is 4 people sitting around a table. Boring.

I also miss the fact that exams didn't really matter. They required no effort to pass, so you could focus on other things, like sports, computer games and being rubbish at talking to girls. You could skive off several classes a week and sit in the park right by the college in the sun,
just enjoying yourself.

That's right, i'm on about 6th Form - old enough to drive and drink, but not old enough to have many things to worry about in life. If I could go back, I would.

A Graduation

You stand on a stage in front of 500 people, and the last three years of your life crystallise in front of you, in the form of an elderly chap, wearing black and silver robes, with a mildly concussed smile and a ridiculous hat with a tassel on it. He smiles, and recites something in Welsh that you don't understand. You smile back and bend your neck, touching the corner of your mortarboard hat. He does the same, and then says something else as you're name is read out - with the associated sniggering as people heard you're ridiculous middle name - to the multitudes, before it's over, and you sweep off stage to allow the next person a brief moment in the spotlight.


So this is what i've spent money and time on, for the last three years of my life. I felt proud, surprisingly. I wasn't expecting that feeling to be in there among the others - boredom (why is this ceremony so LONG), fear (don't trip up don't trip up don't trip up) amusement (that old professors going to sleep....). But it was there, nestling in a smug self satisfied way among the others. In a way i've earned it, so I suppose its not surprising my hind-brain shoved it in without consulting the fore-brain. I didn't work anywhere NEAR as hard as I should have done, I know i'm a 1st student, if I wasn't so lazy, but I still worked... well, enough. Enough to come out with a perfectly passable, perfectly good grade to finish my full time educational career off. So I think that short moment on stage in front of friends family and many strangers was worth it, about right.

I am now an Alumni of Aberystwyth University, a Graduate of their International Relations Department - David B Williams, BScEcon (Hons)

If i'd have got a 1st mind, I would have wanted a bloody fireworks display!